Transforming Xavion into a band, the duo added four more musicians to the line-up over the next few years: vocalist Dexter Haygood, lead guitarist Kevan Wilkins, bassist Skip Johnson and secondary keyboardist Johnnie Woods.

[5][6] Burnin' Hot is a mix of hard rock and soul music with a club-style dance backing,[7] and features what critic Prentis Rogers describes as "screeching guitars, punchy if not raunchy vocals, pounding drums and flimsy lyrics.

[8] Music critic Chuck Eddy describes Burnin' Hot as one of several explicit heavy metal moves by African-American musicians recorded following the success of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (1983) – which he deems the "high-water mark of rock-funk integration" – alongside Shalamar's "Dead Giveaway" (1983) and Kool & the Gang's "Misled" (1984).

"[10] The critic Tom Harrison similarly describes the album as a product of the "slipstream" created by "Beat It", believing that "the hard-rock influence found on Prince's Purple Rain, and in commercially acceptable doses on Michael Jackson's Thriller had to inspire a response from new, emerging black recording artists.

"[4] According to critic Jack Brandt, the opening track "Eat Your Heart Out" demonstrates Xavion's "capbilities within the pop medium", while "Don't Let It Go to Your Head" is a fast-paced song that "combines pseudo-punk with pseudo-funk".

[10] Elektra advertised the release with a magazine advert stating that the LP would "ignite even the most passive listeners",[15] while journalist Jack Brandt believed the album and Xavion's then-impending tour with Hall & Oates could bring the band fame.

[4] The first leg spanned 37 dates, largely in the Northeast and West Coast of the U.S.[3] Adams said that, with only 30 minutes to "squeeze the album [into their sets]", the group chose to shorten two of the songs, and planned for it to be a "a very exciting show with explosions and fog.

[3] On the tour's opening show at the Bangor Auditorium, Maine, on October 26, 1984, Xavion's six-song set began with "Self-Built Hell", "You're My Type" and "Can't Get My Connection", which were fused into a churning medley, followed by three songs played in full—the slower "Get Me Hot" and the rockers "Eat Your Heart Out" and the title track.

[21] During their performance at the Sioux Falls Arena, South Dakota, the following evening, Xavion wore black leather clothes and animal skins and advertised the album between songs, while at one point the half-clad Johnnie Woods did bumps and grinds.

[13] Reviewing the St. Paul Civic Center show, Martin Keller of the Minnesota Star Tribune commented on Xavion's "brief and energetic set", drawing comparison to Prince's one-time guitarist Dez Dickerson, but felt that only the title track was memorable, believing that while the group's "colorblind heavy metal approach" is "an interesting development in rock", they lacked strong material and "would do well to integrate more funk into its mix".

[23] In a positive review, Roger Catlin of the Omaha World-Herald described Xavion as a black band that "carries off a marriage between hard rock and solid soul", and believed the album attempts to create "a heavy mix" evocative of Run-D.M.C.

"[7] Tom Harrison of The Province felt that Burnin' Hot resembled a cross between the Isley Brothers and Van Halen, calling it "protean hard rock with a dance-club bottom and heavy-metal guitars.

"[12] Reviewing the songs "Don't Let It Go to Your Head", "Burnin' Hot" and "Eat Your Heart Out" for the publication, Zimmerman believed that Wilkins' "biting edge" as a guitarist was responsible for the band venturing "far closer to the hard rock style than any other existing black artists", comparing them to Mother's Finest.